Four Quiet Habits That Steal Teachers’ Summer Peace 301

Summer break isn’t always ruined by big problems. Sometimes it’s the quiet habits that keep you tense, distracted, and oddly anxious even when you finally have time off. We’re talking about four sneaky mistakes that can mess up your summer mojo and how to avoid them with simple, realistic shifts that actually help teachers recharge. 

We start with a practical back-to-school mindset: why having a light plan before you leave for summer can make the next school year feel calmer. Then we get honest about the “all vacation, all the time” approach. Yes, you deserve rest, but ignoring every school task can turn into that looming, late-summer dread. We share a balanced way to protect your time off while still preventing the stress pileup. 

We also dig into reading as self-care, not homework. Fiction, feel-good books, audiobooks, and podcasts can refill your tank and bring back curiosity. Finally, we talk structure: when the school schedule disappears, it’s easy to feel formless and reactive. A small, deliberate routine and a few clear goals can give you freedom without the anxiety. 

If you want a calmer, more restorative summer as a teacher, press play, then subscribe, share with a teacher friend, and leave a quick review so more educators can find the show.

Transcript

Quiet Habits That Steal Peace

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Sometimes the things stealing our peace in the summer aren't dramatic at all. They're quite they're quiet habits that keep us from ever fully exhaling. And that's what we're going to talk

Welcome And Summer Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:13

about today. Welcome to One Tired Teacher. I'm Trina Devery. Hope you stick around.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Welcome to One Tired Teacher. And even though she may need a nap, this teacher is ready to wake up and speak her truth about the trials and treasures of teaching. Here she is, wide awake. Wait, she's not asleep right now, is she? She is awake, right? Okay. From Trina Debori Teaching and Learning, your host, Trina Debori.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Hey, so we're talking about sneaky mistakes. Four, actually. Four sneaky mistakes that are messing up your summer mojo. Hey, so we're gonna talk about some things that might be really messing up your summer

Live Monday Mini Trainings Plan

SPEAKER_00 1:01

mojo. Before we get started, I want to tell you though. I hinted around at this a little bit a couple weeks ago, but I wanted to tell you what I am doing this summer. So I am going to show up live and offer some little mini trainings for the month of June and July. I'm gonna do it on Mondays. I don't want to mess up your weekend. I thought maybe Mondays you might be refreshed from the weekend, need a little bit of PD or a little catch up or something, so to say. I'm I'm I haven't completely decided. As I'm recording this, I haven't completely decided if I'm gonna do it on my Facebook page, one tired teacher, or if I'm gonna do it inside my makerspace thinking and learning um group. I'm kind of feeling like I want to do it on the podcast page so that if people happen to find it, they'll be, you know, they'll be all set and they can join. I'm thinking, I'm thinking I'm gonna do that. I think I'm gonna do it on that. So as I'm saying it out loud, and we're gonna talk about just a variety of topics. And I know if you're on if you're a TDTL listy, love my listees, if you are on my email list, you will have you'll get all the information about this. So if you're not, then hop on over to Trina Debrie Teaching Learning.com and just hop on the pop-up. There's a pop-up, you'll get a little freebie. You sign up and you'll get this information. And then I'll have completely decided that I all the topics that I'm gonna talk about. I think I'm gonna talk about podcasts in your classroom. I'm gonna talk about um read aloud. I love read aloud. I'm gonna talk about interactive read aloud. I love interactive read aloud. I'm gonna talk about like getting kids excited about learning. I'll definitely talk about makerspace because you know how I feel about that, and so much more. So I hope that you will join me. It'll be it'll be lots of fun and it won't be super long. I'll try to keep it short. And if you notice, like the podcast has been much shorter in the last you know, bit of time. Actually, this whole entire month, I made these episodes really short. So I was hoping that you I would have a chance to kind of do what you needed to do, and that if if you were feeling overwhelmed, that I wasn't adding to that overwhelmed feeling. You can take me when you're doing laundry, when you're cleaning up your classroom, when you're driving to and from school. And so hopefully you're not feeling like it's another thing you have to do. Hopefully you're you're enjoying it. So I made it a little bit shorter because you know I can be kind of long-winded sometimes. And if you've been with me for a long time, you know this is true. But you know, lately I've been I've been keeping it short. So let me get let me get focused.

Mistake One No Next Year Plan

SPEAKER_00 3:50

All right, so let's talk about some things that might be kind of messing up your summer mojo because we don't want your summer mojo messed up. This is a time for you to recharge. Recharge, my friend. It's important. All right, so the first teeny little mistake that can happen sometimes and really mess up your summer mojo is not having a plan for your next year prior to leaving. Now, I know the end of the year is a lot, but when we have a little bit of time to think about what we're gonna do for next year, at least as far as like your room decor goes and things like that, it does make it a lot easier if you can start doing some of that stuff. That's one of the reasons why I was so like theme week, theme week, theme week. Because that used to give me time to like kind of decorate for the next year and like get situated. And it was so nice to come in and feel like I was a little bit ahead. Be feeling a little bit ahead is very helpful. It takes away that stress that we have at the beginning of the year when stress is at an all-time high. So just keep that in mind. That's one little sneaky mistake that sometimes

Mistake Two Summer As Pure Vacation

SPEAKER_00 5:02

we make. The second little sneaky mistake that we make is treating our whole entire summer like it's a vacation. Now we need time to do nothing, or better yet, to explore, to enjoy our family, to then binge watch Bridgington, Bridgington, or good girls. I, those are the ones that I'm listening to right or watching right now. So I'd love to hear what you are watching. Tell me in the Facebook group or tell me on OneTire Teacher Facebook page, or tell me on Instagram, Trina Devery TNL. But if we ignore the mounting work that is looming, it's gonna cause anxiety and stress in the next school year. And it's it does come. Like we know it's coming. So we wanna, we don't want to act like there's absolutely nothing to do. We definitely need to take a break. We definitely don't want to spend our whole entire summer working. Don't do that. I don't think you should do that. But I do think if we treat the whole summer like it's a vacation and we don't do anything for school, then we're kind of setting ourselves up for a lot of anxiety at the beginning of the year. All

Mistake Three Refusing To Read

SPEAKER_00 6:06

right. Sneaky little mistake number three that sometimes messes up our summer mojo is refusing to read anything. Oh my goodness, this is the time to read people. And it doesn't have to be school books necessarily. It can be good old fun fiction. I love fiction. Books that make our hearts sing, books that inspire us to be more careful, maybe even fall in love, just books that are that are that really excite us. Like this is our chance to read. And I I sometimes laugh when teachers are like, I don't like reading. What do you mean you don't like reading? We're teachers. You're allowed to not like reading. And if you don't like reading, then audiobooks is a great solution for you. They um will do the same thing for your heart, and it's there, I love Audible. That's the one that I like a lot. Um, I also get audiobooks on um on iTunes, on Apple, you know, on Apple. So that's another place. Or podcasts. Podcasts are really great as well. So don't miss out on the fun that you can have of reading. I mean, reading is just an important thing for us all to do in our life. All right, and then sneaky little mistake number four, not being deliberate.

Mistake Four No Deliberate Structure

SPEAKER_00 7:29

When summer comes, the form of life given to us by school suddenly disappears. We are faced with like feeling almost formless, like we don't have any structure in ourselves. And we like, like we've gone boneless. If you've ever read Canuffle Bunny, that's a book to read for sure. Love that one. When she goes trixy goes boneless when her daddy doesn't understand that she's trying to say that they don't have canuffle bunny. And I love that. I think that's so funny. I used to have my kids show me what that looked like, it was hilarious, but anyway, you kind of feel that way. So, you know, teachers, we we need some forms in our life, we need some structure, and we do not have to have it like imposed on us from the outside world. We get to do it, we get to do it from what makes us feel comfortable. And everyone will have some like some type of thing that you want to do or structure that you want to have for your summer. But the question is whether it will be deliberate, will it be careful, will you consider what works for you? Or rather, is it going to be shaped by whatever happens on a whim, by a chance, by a reaction? Making a list of goals is helpful in this area. I really think this is helpful. Like I used to find my, and if you don't want to have any former structure for like the first week or two, that's okay. But living like that the whole summer can actually lead to anxiety. So just keep that in mind.

Recap And Where To Connect

SPEAKER_00 9:02

All right, I hope these little sneaky mistakes don't slip into your habits for the summer and you don't lose your your summer mojo because this is the time for you to get that mojo back, baby. I hope that you, I hope you do that. Now remember to check out Mondays on One Tire Teacher on Facebook, and or maybe even, you know, check out what's going on on Instagram, all those things, and and hopefully you'll learn some, you'll keep your form just a little bit, maybe on Mondays. This One Tire Teacher is already for a long summer nap. Until next time, sweet dreams and sleep tight.